Cross-posted at Blue Jersey

Chris Smith voted to double the cost of prescription drug co-pays for military families. In 2006, the Bush administration doubled the cost of prescription co-pays for military families under Tri-Care health coverage. Democrats introduced legislation restoring the original co-pays of $3 for generic drugs and $9 for brand name drugs, but Chris Smith and other Republicans voted to block the legislation. [HR 5122, vote #139, 5/11/06; Leadership document, "Democrats Are Fighting for Military Families," 5/11/06]

According to research, many military families face difficult financial challenges. Over 20% of military families report having received WIC aid or food stamps from the government. While a few dollars saved might not mean much to Chris Smith, who has voted to raise his own salary by $32,600 since 1999, every dollar helps our military families afford basic necessities.[Washington Post/Kaiser Foundation Military Families Survey March 2004 CRS: Salaries of Members of Congress Updated January 8, 2008; 1999 Vote #300; 2000 Vote #419; 2001 House Vote #267; 2002 House Vote #322; 2003 House Vote #463; 2004 House Vote #451; 2005 House Vote #327; 2006 vote #261; 2007 Vote #580]

The lead story in latest issue of The Washington Spectator tells of the single-payer universal healthcare system in Taiwan, which the article says was adopted in 1995. Get this, it was modeled on the United States Medicare system.

The article describes the plan in detail and bemoans the fact that none of the presidential candidates this year have had the guts to propose a single-payer plan. Such ideas seem to be radioactive in US political circles, even though the citizens are suffering from the current system, and healthcare reform rates among the top priorities of the electorate. It blames the power of the health insurance company lobby for this state of affairs.

OK do not get me wrong I am all for doing whatever you want to do to keep life entertaining. I am bringing this up not as wrist slapper but as education. The link below is an article from the New York Times, and it is about the deaths caused by drugs in Miami in 2007. Long story short:

This has a personal interest for me as I have a son that was on medication from an early age.  In 1992 we adopted two brothers.  One of the things told to us when they matched us with them was that both suffered from Fetal Alcohol Syndrome.  More after the jump.

This is a follow up to NYCEVE's excellent diary which is on the current Rec List (April 23, 2008).  Eve did the research, I am only offering an opinion.

NYCEVE's health insurance diary

The views I am expressing here were developed when the Bush administration prescription drug benefit was being debated in Congress, and the administration was forcing congress to debate legislation with budgetary numbers that they knew to be bogus, and were quickly proven to be bogus.  Those in congress who argued this position were simply ignored by those who were bought by the pharmaceutical industry.  Simply in their pocket, as was the president.  I frequently refer to big money political contributors through their personal campaign contributions, their massive lobbying budgets and their large contributions to PAC's, 527's and state candidates and races.  I refer to these entities and people as the candidate's "investors", because that of course is what they are spending their money for.  A leg up in the market place, enforced by bad law and bad courts.  That is what the investments pay for.

Several events making news here in the good ol' US of A have demonstrated a strong level of ignorance or maybe it's just simple stupidty. The first events was a front page story several weeks back which announced that traces of many forms of prescribed medications were showing up in the public drinking water.

D.K. Pharmaceuticals announces its new wonderdrug "Necro Nectar." Made with all natural arsenic, with a touch of antifreeze for flavor, Necro Nectar will stop aging and allergies, and is guaranteed to cure a cold. Necro Nectar was approved by Food and Drug Adminstration as soon as the checks cleared. ($100 for the FDA registration and $100,000 for the George Bush Presidential Library.)

There may be side effects to Necro Nectar, such as rigor mortis and a desperate belief in God. However, any survivors cannot sue D.K. Pharmaceuticals because of the legal doctrine known as "pre-emption." Based upon the common law principle of "Nyah, nyah, you can’t touch me", pre-emption grants immunity from all liability because the Government says it can. No matter how dangerous the drug, a FDA approval absolves the manufacturer of incompetence, corruption and malice. And no matter how perfunctory, inept or facetious the FDA approval procedure, ain’t that your tough luck.

For the moment Necro Nectar does not exist. However, there actually are on the market a number of risky drugs and medical devices. Their danger has been proved, but pre-emption protects their right to kill you.

The Associated Press has recently conducted a five month survey of our nation's water systems, with some very unnerving results.  Normally, people don't think about the water that comes out of their faucets unless it's off-color or smells or tastes funny.  But then along comes an enterprising group of journalists and they make us all stop and think about what it is we're taking into our bodies, and worse, giving to our children.  In this case, it's prescription medications.  Everything from Tylenol to sex hormones.

A vast array of pharmaceuticals -- including antibiotics,
anti-convulsants, mood stabilizers and sex hormones -- have been found
in the drinking water supplies of at least 41 million Americans, an
Associated Press investigation shows.

I'm usually not the kind of person who gets overly worked up when I hear about minor contamination.  I don't like it, but I don't let it scare me like, say, a bomb under my house would.  But this... this scares me.

(Please note that this is an updated version, as some new developments have occurred)

Greetings everyone, today is Monday, the first day of the work  week for many.  I hope to start a new series today on manufacturing.  And by manufacturing, I don’t mean just those "smoke stack industries" but also the side effects of the way our vital supplies  and infrastructure to keep our country running are handled.  Just-in-time manufacturing has been a boon to managers the world over, but with the outsourcing of the fabrication of needed materials, it has left us fragile as well.  Manufacturing Mondays will focus on not only the current malaise affecting plants here, but also the workers involved.  From the infrastructure that keep things humming to the development of what I like to call the New Industrial Economy that seems to be emerging.  I hope to serve you all by covering it here.

"I am deeply concerned about skyrocketing prescription drug costs," Hillary Clinton says on her Senate Web site. "I also believe that we need to make drug reimportation safe and legal."

However, a key Clinton campaign strategist's company appears to be working to keep prices high and cut off reimportation.

The majoriy of kossacks are old enough to remember when our country had "Regulation". Republicans, Centrists, and BigBiz shudder at that word, and with good reason. Just a quick glance back at the past year when our Pets were poisoned, our Produce was poison, and what seemed like 90% of all the kids toys were found toxic shows how corners have been cut because of the lack of "Regulation". What is refreshing  is to read about someone doing what is right.
 

Welcome to the world of market regulation, and to the Commission's intrepid strike force of dawn raiders.

The raids, early on Wednesday, were launched from Brussels to investigate whether big drug companies were fixing the market to squeeze out copycat medicines. They included forays on Pfizer, Merck, Bayer Schering Pharma and Roche as well as generic firms such as Teva and Sandoz. Hours later, with almost ironic understatement, the E.U. competition watchdog said it had merely launched a "sector inquiry into pharmaceuticals with unannounced inspections."

http://www.time.com/...

This is a crosspost from Firedoglake.com

Anyone can get health care in the United States. Just ask George W. Bush. Last year in Cleveland, he had this to say to the 47 million Americans without health care coverage:

I mean, people have access to health care in America. After all, you just go to an emergency room.

Or "How I would fix healthcare in 20,000 words or less"...

These days it seems like every presidential hopeful and their cousin has a healthcare crisis fix... and just thought I would share a family practice doctor's viewpoint on just how i thought we might go about it.  Keep in mind, that I might be run out of town for my views, as certainly they are not shared completely by my profession...

The system I envision is really fairly simple, and has to have a couple of ground rules:

1. Physicians have to be treated within the framework of their private careers... Unless they are government employees, or receiving government aid for student loans, don't make them personally or fiscally responsible for the care of everyone in the US.  Sure we took the hippocratic oath, but dont use that to pin a guilt trip on any of us... most already give a lot to their communities, and a lot of free or discounted care... They have to be allowed to be private business owners, it's their constitutional right, and no different from any of your other local business owners, they have employees, overhead, and many other fixed costs, and cant just be told that they have to take a loss in order to save the US.

In a signal to Pharma that US government insurance is not a blank check, Medicare arbitrarily reduced the reimbursements on 2 cancer drugs used to treat non-Hodgkins lymphoma (the fifth-most-common cancer) by about 50%.

Under the new rules, after Jan. 1 [2008], Medicare will reimburse hospitals about $16,000 for each treatment with the drugs, which a patient needs to receive only once. GlaxoSmithKline, which markets Bexxar, says it is priced at almost $30,000 a treatment, and Biogen Idec, which sells Zevalin, says it costs nearly as much. While high, such prices are not unusual for new cancer therapies, which can cost $50,000 or more for a year of treatment.

Medicare says it has data supporting their reimbursement decision, and since I'm no fan of big pharma; I thought I'd find that Medicare was totally in the right.

This is the eighth and final posting in a series in which I present evidence about the ill effects of some drugs and medical devices, the ways these Killer Meds are pushed by those who profit from them, and the reasons the FDA is neglecting its regulatory duties. I thought I had done my share about alerting my fellow citizens to the need for major changes in the ways medications are tested, marketed, and regulated. [See previous postings here: See previous postings here: Part I: Zyprexa, Part II: Baycol, Part III: Guidant, Part IV: Posicor, Part V: Redux, Part VI: Vioxx, Part VII]

But then the headlines brought the concerns about unduly risky medications much closer home, in effect right into my chest and heart.

Bring On The Profits!

Senator Herb Kohl (D) of Wisconsin, recently wrote to CMS and the FDA that Genentech’s plan to restrict the availability of Avastin to strategic compounding pharmacies will cost taxpayers $1 billion to $3 billion a year.

He's right, it will; but I don't think the corporatist, Bush administration worries themselves overmuch about a corporation maximizing their profits at our expense. The uninformed will buy into the scare tactics used to justify Genentech's position, but that's why I write these diaries - to keep you informed.

In a nutshell: Avastin, which sells for $40 per monthly dose (the drug being limited) is very similar to Lucentis, which sells for $2,000 per monthly dose (the drug being promoted). That's right, Avastin is 2% of the cost of Lucentis.

So what gives?

Hello good friends, I thought today was a fine day to post something on my favorite website.  If anyone was wondering where I've been, I've been home battling health problems associated with taking the most dangerous drug in the history of that class of drugs.  I'm referring to Vioxx.  Well, I'm hanging in there folks, or more importantly, my kidneys and heart are hanging in there, but it's been a rough ride.

So why is today such a fine day to post something?  Cuz I'm being sarcastic, of course.  Today I heard the news about Swiss drugmaker Roche Holding AG being told by the FDA to put a sterner warning on it's flu medecine Tamiflu.  You see, it turns out that Tamiflu might be responsible for causing psychotic behavior in children.  It seems three children have jumped off balconies to their deaths and one ran into traffic killing himself.

This is the seventh posting in a series in which I present evidence about the ill effects of some drugs and medical devices, the ways these Sickening Meds are pushed by those who profit from them, and the reasons the FDA is neglecting its regulatory duties. (Check back next Monday for the final installment.  See previous postings here: Part I: Zyprexa, Part II: Baycol, Part III: Guidant, Part IV: Posicor, Part V: Redux, Part VI: Vioxx)  If you agree that this is an issue that deserves attention in short order—please consider passing the word on to others. Maybe together we can put it on the national agenda. In the process we are sure to discover who keeps the politicians mum and how the drug companies are able to continue in this nefarious business.